SBU: Russia is sending billions of rubles to separatist republics in Eastern Ukraine
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) made a statement that Russia is financing the self-proclaimed LPR (Luhasnk Peple's Republic) and DPR (Donetsk People's Republic), and that the extent of the aid is calculated to be billions of rubles.
So far the SBU has inspected channels of such financing within a number of previously opened criminal proceedings. According to authorities, the LNR alone is anticipating revenues of more than 11 billion rubles ($190 mln USD) in the first quarter of 2017, while their militia forces, according to the SBU data, would only be able to collect two billion.
The Ukrainian agency argues that the Government of Russia has provided the financial assistance, and the draft budget itself was agreed upon between the People's Council of LPR and relevant Russian ministries.
"One of the mechanisms selected to help fill the budget was a charitable side pocket fund, named the ‘Fund to Support International Humanitarian Projects’ (whose president is Vladimir I. Pashkov, a Russian citizen). The founder of the Foundation, which was registered at the end of 2015, is Moscow's Mezhdunarodnyi Raschetnyi Bank (International Settlement bank)”, claimed the SBU report.
It is also noted that the fund allegedly sends money directly to the State Bank of the LPR through the accounts of a Russian non-profit organization, ‘Center for International Settlements'; these revenues cover a negative budget balance. In particular, the People's Militia of the LPR has received more than 820 million rubles, while the Ministry of State Security (MGB) of the LPR has received almost 100 million rubles, said the SBU.
SBU's operatives found that significant funds from the Russian revenues are being used to finance propaganda work among the population in order to discredit Ukraine.